The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-04-07
The Late Judge James M. Ellis.

see in a recent number Of the
Magnelis Gazette editorial men
ton of the death Of my old friend
Judge James M. Ellis, formerly oi
Monticello, later of Fayettc, and for
a number If years past a resident OF
the State of Kansas.
There is an error in the para.
graph, wherein it is stated that he
was once elected Probate Judge oil
Lawrence county. lie ran for the
office in 1S4S, hut was signally
defeated. His opponent was Will.
liam Harrison, a plain farmer from
upper Silver Creek, with no legal
learning, and in fact no other kin
III learning, but with plenty OF
good "horse sense. Ellis was q
wrll.rcad lawyer and one of the
/ test educated men that ever lived
ut Monticello, being graduate
with the highest honors, Of Washing
ton College, Pennsylvania, OF which
State he was native. He com.
mcnccd life very young man, at
Monticello "a a teacher in the
Academy, then having q deservedly
high reputation in the piney woods
as an educational institution, hut
when | first met him in lS47 he had
come to the Bar, and had hung out
his shingle as practicing Attorney
at Law. lie, however, got but
little business, and had 20 great
measure of popularity. In fact, at
that time as a lawyer, he was a
/ failure. often tried to divine the
cause of his failure, but never could
! arrive at satisfactory solution
Of the problem. 1t may have been
the Overshadowing reputation of the
brilliant bar that surrounded HIM,
with Harris and Goode at its head
aud with which he had to come in
competition. 1t certainly did not
result from any want of earning or
ability or from ony offensive assump
ton of superiority, for he was
exceedingly modest-too much SO
perhaps -very simple and plain in
manners and dress, friendly and
familiar in his intercourse with the
people, and he appealed unconscious
~ to the sympathy of men, as Il
life long cripple, having but little
use of one of his legs. 1t
certainly did not result from his
not being q simon-pure Democrat,
for he WAS one of the most vehe-
ment advocates Of Jacksonion
Democracy, and that means that he
belonged to the party which includ
ell nearly all the inhabitants of the
Banner county," the little Wing
minority, it might almost be
said consisting of only two men, but
they were sraunch, brave men, John
Gartman and John II. Teunisson,
constituting a host within them
selves. 1t could not have resulted
from his having been Il Yankee
School teacher since as pro-
slavery street corner taIkcr be
nutdid even the Shareholders them
selves. He had at his tongues end,
ready for any emergency, all the
stereotyped political and biblical
arguments in defense Of the
peculiar institution, and that too
long before the publication Of
'Fletcher's Studies ON Slavery"
and the bible justification" o.:
the ownership Of the Ethiopian
bv the Caucasian. Sectional pre-
ludice had not then reached the
fcverish heat it afterwards assumed
and no man was tabooed for the acct
dent Of birth. There were then several
Northern men at Monticello highly
esteemed and successful in their
various callings. There were Z ,bulon
and 10 Pendleton, brothers, of New
York, eminent phi, sicians, graduates
OF Columbia College, courteous
gentlemen when sober, hut when
on "bendcr" uncivil and the
incarnation Of mischief; W. A E.
Stone, Of Maine, a class mate al
Bowdoin of Nathaniel Hawthorn and
Franklin Pierce, who was at one
time Circuit Judge, State Senator
and the Democratic nominee for
Congress; John r. Chambers, of New
jersey, large, por,ly man of
pleasing presence; Samuel Evans, Of
Philadelphia, whose peculiar make
Of beautiful saddles for both ladies'
and gentlemen made him noted
for forty miles around: Charles
Fish. Of Rochester, New York, and
George Ficlis, of Vermont, the first
an old bachelor merchant, very fond
of poetry and flowers, having indeed
the lovelicst flower garden on Pearl
River he latter. nephew of
David Dudley Fields, editor and
printer of the Banner, both fond
Of two things, good story and n
good toddy, and both took the
gold fever of 40 and disappeared
forever in the wilds Of California.
There is this to be said: Ellis was
a strictly abstemious and moral man
at time when ahstemiousness and